Newsflash | Nikon’s new D5, D500, SB-5000!

Trompie van der Berg

9 years ago

Nikon has started the year off with a bang with the official release of the much anticipated full frame flagship D5, the flagship crop-sensor D500 and the new SB-5000 flash!

The Nikon D5 is replacing the Nikon D4s which has for a few years been the top end Nikon offering. It comes in two versions, a two CF-card slot version or a two XQD-card slot. The improvements over the D4s is faster frames per second at 12FPS, much higher ISO at 102 400 native and expandable to a whopping 3 276 800! Let that sink in for a second, yes that is 3 million! Further, it also has 153 AF points, 99 which are cross-type sensors. It also comes with a 20MP sensor, a touch screen, controls radio slave flashes (limited to the new SB-5000), 4K video and a 200-frame buffer even in 14-bit uncompressed RAW. The price looks to be around 6500$ and with our current exchange rate, it’s not going to be pretty!

The Dx-format, flagship Nikon D500 is, in my opinion, the most anticipated camera Nikon has released in a long while! It is the follow-up to the much loved and respected D300s. This is the perfect camera for wildlife, sports and action photographers that need the extra zoom distance that a Dx crop-sensor provides. In terms of the spec, it’s the fastest Dx camera Nikon has ever released, at 10FPS. It has almost the exact same AF system as the Nikon D5, which is amazing when you look at the price difference! Furthermore, it has a 79-frame buffer in 14-bit uncompressed RAW, a tilting touch screen, 4k video, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a 20MP sensor. The ISO range is a whopping 51200 native, expandable to 1 638 400! Again yes, that is million! So perfect for wildlife photographers needing that extra light on the sensor when it’s getting dark. The price looks to be around 2000$. In my opinion, you are getting a lot of camera for the price! Now the downside, Nikon has replaced the second card slot with an XQD slot, which is baffling to me. That means that if you want to run dual cards, you will need two different card types. There is also no built-in flash so you will not be able to trigger older flashes from your camera. It does, however, have radio control built in for the new Sb-5000.

Canon has for a few years, in my opinion, had the more superior flash with it’s built in radio triggering system. This meant that you were free from line-of-sight and could fire the flash in a different room if you wanted to, without the use of third-party triggers. Nikon has finally caught up and I am really excited about this development. This feature is only usable with the new D5 and D500 at the moment, though I am sure a commander unit will be released at some point for other model cameras. The flash also features an internal cooling system which Nikon says allows you to fire 100 continuous flashes at a few second intervals. It has a zoom range of 14 – 200mm and a recycle time of 1.8 – 2.6 seconds. The price looks to be around the 600$ mark.

We hope to get our hands on these exciting new cameras and speedlight for a proper review. In the meantime, check out the links below:

I am excited to see what Canon releases in 2016, I am sure it will be rivaling the new Nikon options. It is exciting times we live in with technology advancing so rapidly with companies constantly in competition for the market share. I am looking forward to seeing some sample images from the above cameras, especially showing off the ISO capabilities and image quality.